


First times

by JoeyLee



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 05:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2535707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeyLee/pseuds/JoeyLee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The progression of Daryl and Carol's relationship through the seasons through their various "first" times. [crossposted from ff.net]</p>
            </blockquote>





	First times

He had seen her before, of course. He was gone half the time on hunts, and people were always milling around at the quarry, coming and going, trekking to the lake for water or laundry, but camp just wasn't that big and it had already been two weeks since he and Merle had joined up. Without trying to in any way and most definitely without wanting to, he was starting to get to know them.

The cop, Shane, who he watched cautiously in case he or Merle (especially Merle) had any of the usual trouble they'd had in the past with law enforcement. Dale with his dumb hat, always sitting on top of the RV spying on everyone or huddled under its hood with steam billowing out around his head. The Chinese kid who couldn't seem to sit still. The blond one (Angela? Andrea?) who seemed to spend all day every day nagging her sister. And the meek little gray-haired woman with her head always down, never far away from her small blond daughter and the loudmouth fat husband.

Still, he tried to keep to the woods or sidelines of camp as much as possible and avoid too much (ideally, any) contact with the group. If he and Merle were going to rob these dumbasses like they planned, it wouldn't do to spend too much time at their stupid cookouts or sitting around yapping together as though the world hadn't freaking ended and it wasn't either survival of the fittest or no survival at all.

So he'd seen her before like he'd seen them all, but he had never noticed her, never thought even one passing thought about her the second she was out of his eyeline. Until that day.

He was sitting outside the tent, cleaning his bolts. Merle was rustling around inside, high as hell most likely, but relatively quiet for once.

He looked up when he heard the little girl cry out. She ran across the camp to her mother, who was standing near one of the cars pegging up wet laundry. He watched idly as the girl scrambled to a stop before her mother, holding up her hand with tears streaming down her cheeks.

The kid must have gotten a splinter, he thought, and he was about to look away in boredom when his eyes went to the gray-haired woman. She looked down at the little girl with her concern radiating from her face. She held the girl's hand gently and coaxed her chin up to smile down at her reassuringly. He watched as she pulled the splinter from her hand while saying something softly that caused the little girl to laugh out loud through her tears.

He couldn't look away from her. Her eyes were full of such kindness and affection that she seemed to shine. It changed her whole face, her whole body. She had gone from gray to lit up from within before his eyes. He knew he was staring but found that he couldn't look away.

From his peripheral vision, he saw the tent flap open, and his brother step out. "Let's hunt," Merle grunted, bored. He heard Merle grab a bow and start towards the deeper woods and still he couldn't look away. Her hands cupping the little girl's face. The flush in her cheeks. The curve of her neck as she bent towards her daughter. The sparkling eyes. He couldn't seem to do anything but stand and stare at her.

He felt Merle turn around behind him, annoyed that he wasn't following, and even though he knew he should turn away immediately before Merle made some kind of scene, he couldn't. He didn't want to break the spell. He hoped desperately that Merle wouldn't notice anything, wouldn't say nothing, but that was dumb. Merle noticed everything and there wasn't nothing he wouldn't say.

"You got a thing for little girls now, Brother?" he heard Merle drawl behind him.

His face burned. Just like Merle. He didn't know whether Merle had followed his gaze and assumed his brother was staring at the child instead of the woman or whether Merle was simply being an asshole to embarrass him, but the result was the same. His brother implying, no…flat out stating that he was some kind of pervert in front of a bunch of people who already thought they were redneck trash.

He looked around desperately to see who might have overheard and felt immediate relief. There was no one close enough to have heard, except the girl and her mother. The little girl was oblivious, but her mama had heard and turned her head to him immediately while folding her arms protectively over her daughter's skinny shoulders. Her eyes met his and held, and he saw cold anger wash over her face. In that instant, all the weakness seemed to slough off from her and she straightened and stared at him with such intensity that he almost stepped back. She looked like a mama bear, protecting her cub, and he knew that she would die before she let anything happen to that little girl. He braced himself to hear her yell at him or call that cop over and accuse him of bothering them.

But she must have read something in his face that told her the truth. She cocked her head slightly to the side and studied him. He felt frozen in place by the intensity of her gaze. Finally, he watched her face soften, her blue eyes crinkle, and she smiled slightly and gave a little friendly nod in his direction. He almost found himself smiling back before he caught himself. This was ridiculous. Standing in the middle of camp like one of these weak sissies, staring at some stranger who'd probably be dead with her kid before the week was out. He grabbed his bow without a word or another look in her direction and stalked after his brother into the woods.

That was the first time he noticed her, but after that day, he found it hard to look away.


End file.
